Chances
are you’re going to be hearing about the J.D. Power and Associates’
2002 Boat Competitive Information Study—at least from the winners—and
if you log onto the Power Web site (www.jdpa.com),
you’ll find some interesting factoids that might influence your
next boat-buying decision.

Power
breaks down the boats in the survey into seven categories: ski/wakeboard,
bass, small runabouts (16 to 19 feet), large runabouts (20 to 29 feet),
pontoon boats, coastal fishing boats (17 to 28 feet), and express cruisers
(24 to 33 feet). Further defining the express cruisers category is the
requirement that the boat have a galley and an enclosed head.

According
to the study, owners of ski and wakeboard boats were most satisfied with
their boats, reporting just 2.29 problems in the first year. At the other
end of the spectrum were owners of express cruisers, who registered 4.7
problems.

What
is probably more significant to most of us is how the builders of express
cruisers did in the overall ranking, which is an average of each builder’s
score in four categories: Quality and Reliability, Value for Money, Exterior,
and Ride and Handling. But before you plug this data into your next buying
decision, remember a few things. First, since these rankings are only
for models between 24 and 33 feet, manufacturers of larger express cruisers
like Carver and Cruisers weren’t invited to the party. So if you’re
in the market for a boat that’s larger than 33 feet, you have to
ask yourself whether you can apply the findings—good or bad—to
larger models.

That
said, the envelope please. Sea Ray was the clear winner in this category,
getting the maximum rating of five in Quality and Reliability and Exterior,
a four in Ride and Handling, and a three in Value for Money. (By some
arcane formula, Power calculates that as earning a five overall.) Following
Sea Ray with an overall rating of four are Four Winns and Chaparral, while
Bayliner, Maxum, Monterey, Regal, and Rinker chalked up threes. Wellcraft
finished last with a rating of two.

But
wait. On the Web site, there are asterisks after five of the nine brands—Chaparral,
Four Winns, Monterey, Regal, and Rinker—indicating a small sample
size, which according to a Power rep I spoke with means fewer than 100
respondents. In fact, he also told me that the reason Power restricts
its surveys to models up to 33 feet is because of the relatively few number
of boats above that size that are produced annually, and the fact that
its minimum sampling size is 100. So it’s fair to wonder about the
accuracy of these five scores.

Indeed,
I—m not sure exactly what to make of all these ratings, but I did
find two other interesting conclusions. One can be summed up in a quote
by Frank Forkin, a Power partner: “In the automotive industry, the
gap between the automakers that lead the way in quality and customer satisfaction
and those that are at the bottom is relatively narrow. In the boating
industry, there is a large discrepancy between the top boat brands and
the bottom boat brands.”

The
other is a general dissatisfaction with the boat warranties, both in terms
of their duration and what they cover. As we’ve learned from you
many times, you’re tired of having to figure out coverages and track
down service on the many disparate pieces of gear on a boat—especially
a larger boat. You’ve said that you feel one person—the person
you bought your boat from—should take care of all of your problems.
Now that’s something the manufacturers should study.